All Things Lutz!

Today, while riding in Edison Girard's vehicle, I saw this guy



walking South on Broadway Ave, here in Chicago.

Actually, Edison saw him first and said, "Hey. Isn't that John Lutz?" My eyesight is notoriously bad, so I said, "No. No way. Lutz is in New York now." And so we let the guy walk on by...

Except, at the last second, on a whim, I yelled, "Hey Lutz!" out of the car window. If it was him, then we could wave and say "hi" to him. If it wasn't, the guy would just walk on, oblivious.

It was him.

He stopped and looked over at us and shielded his eyes with his hands. He was looking directly into the setting sun, to see us.

I yelled, "It's Me!" and yelled my last name. Our light changed and Edison had to pull away from the light. But Lutz smiled in recognition and waved at us.

And that felt pretty nice.

I haven't seen that guy in a few years. Like 3 or 4 years. He was performing at IO, when I was a student there. And I saw him perform in a few shows. I remember one show of his, that casually passed along one of those Major Improv Revelations to me, just from something that he did onstage. A lesson that I've passed onto other people since then. (Ask me about it sometime and I'll tell you the whole story.)

And of course, I knew that he'd been hired back in 2004 to write on this show.



See? There's his name in the credits of the show.



Everybody I knew was so happy for him. Getting a gig on that show is a pretty big deal. People have had their careers made for them, by that particular gig. And he was one of the most talented people that we knew. So, OF COURSE, we were all excited for him.

Occasionally, he would pop up on the show, as an extra or as a guy in the audience, asking the guest a question, during the opening monologue. The message board would light up with people talking about him and wishing him well. We all really like this guy.

So, we were also pretty excited when he popped up as a frequent guest on this show...



See? There he is, in a scene from the show.



Ironically, enough, I had just watched four episodes of the show last night. I'd let them store up on my DVR and would work my way through them, all in one sitting. And so the show was pretty fresh on my mind.

Imagine then, the strangeness of seeing the very same guy, here in Chicago, today, just crossing the street, totally oblivious to the fact that he was on my tv, last night. Surreal. Next, I expect to see the Mythbusters buying milk in my grocery store.

I like this guy. I have learned from him. And I respect this guy. I am happy for his successes and of course, it makes me happy that he remembers me. When I wave at him, he waves back at me. And that's a nice feeling. In fact, it made my day.

Cheers,
Mr.B